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Friday, April 3, 2009

Roger Federer may want to retire his denial dance once and for all this season.

The 13-time Grand Slammer was all out of sorts (to say the least) and was bounced from the Sony Ericsson Open today by Novak Djokovic 3-6, 6-2, 6-3. The Serb will now face the winner of the Andy Murray-Juan Martin del Potro match tonight in Sunday's big final.

So how out of sorts was the supposedly serene Swiss? Well, I wouldn't ask his now-deceased Wilson stick. Just sayin'.

*blows air kisses to Maja*

UPDATE: Click here for the transcript from Fed's post-match presser - it's a MUST READ (thanks Tessa!). Someone is PISSED though I think Wilson should be more - may he rest in peace. Boo hoo.

dayum! he really needed to let out some aggression, but i was still really shocked to see it!

i don't know if he can do it, but i'm really cheering for nole to lift the trophy now (i think it was the embarrassing camping story in addition to my vivid imagination of what the celebration party would be like). murray bores me, sorry. no personality! so vacant and absent. smile! change your facial expression! do SOMETHING! same with delpo. he looks asleep 90% of the time. are you awake?! hello!! HA HA sorry, clearly i'm just cracking myself up. /drivel by jo :)

omg.I mixed the time, thinking it will start in a couple of hours, but it's over, he lost?!Why didn't I watch this???Noooo.This is all going downhill Fed, wake up!Was Fed bad, with million UE and mental as usual in last defeats or was Nole, as I doubt it, brilliant?

I love Andy Murray, nothing annoying about him to me, great smart game, fair player on court, politte and quite rational in interviews, funny with his pastynes, and so sweet goofy smile!Big love for Andy.

Tessa,Fed was gadawful. Honestly, you've never seen him like this before. But the racquet smash? A thing of beauty. I gained a whole lot of respect for him after that. Sometimes, you just need to be violent (against an object.)

Richie,All the ones I destroyed looked like Fed's. It's so great when you can do it in one shot. You feel like if you've accomplished nothing else, you've done at least THAT. Usually, that frees you up and you can play better. But Fed was too far behind and his forehand was AWOL.

ZOMFG! I don't who saw the match, but it was BAD! I started watching when Fed lead 5-1 in the 1st set and thought this would be an easy win for Fed but then... I don't even know what it was, but he just kinda imploded!He sprayed his forehand everywhere, just not in court!You could almost feel how he got more and more frustrated and then - BOOM! - he sends his poor racquet to racquet-heaven...

At this point, does anyone doubt that his problems are bigger than he want everyone (including himself) to believe?I'm not just talking about his level of play, but first and foremost about his mental toughness!He developed from being The Mighty Fed to becoming a mental midget when conditions get rough.

Just for comparison:Both him and Rafa played their worst matches of the year in Miami, but even though Rafa blew that double break lead in the 3rd set, he kept fighting until the end. Roger just gave up! He got upset with himself, the conditions, everything!In the hand he even refused to shake hands with the umpire!

As a Rafanatic and Fedophile, this have been the worst two days in a long time and I want this sh!t to stop!

jo,I agree that Murray is kinda boring, but I also like how hard he has had to work, and the fact that he's as white as a sheet. It makes him closer to one of us, rather than perfect like most of the rest of the top ten.JMDP I like because of all those names. Plus, he's a big gangly goon capable of just killing the ball. He also plays with a lot of emotion, which always makes natch happy! ;)

You kids going down,Have fun on the group party slutbus tour of Miami!

Richie,You can have girlie arms and do it. Use your legs. Bend your knees first. Just like a serve. That's where the power comes from. Of course, make sure you have an extra $300-$500 laying around first.

I wouldn't count on him getting a coach any time soon, read his post-match presser. He actually sounds a little crazy in that (sarcastic and ticked too, which isn't the worst I guess, better than the crazy at least).

WITHIGOW with him, I'm actually beginning to wonder of impending fatherhood is screwing up his tennis already. Yes, I'm one of those nuts who thinks he didn't actually want this yet (despite all his protestations to the contrary) and that Mirka trapped him after failure to get a ring all those years.-Bad Tin! ;)

PS - I'm actually starting to feel sorry for the guy, which I can't believe, crazy Rafa fan that I am!

>> celebration party? well def shirtless and lots of champagne tossed around to bathe in. i think they'll need more party peeps there - for support of course. <<

Word. I'm so there with my slut-wear (hey that rhymes!). Hopefully Nole has Rafa's number so we can call and cheer him up by leaving dirty messages and the like ;)

Brittany: Pfff! You really got me in your comment, thought you were going somewhere else entirely. But let me clarify: I don't find Murray annoying or anything of the sort. He's just kinda there, doo-do-doo, playing great tennis. And that's totally fine, that's his style. It just doesn't do anything for me. Zzzzz. HOWEVER, when I saw him singing along to Coldplay during Tabasco's injury time-out yesterday, I was amused. But only slightly.

On topic: I wonder if Fed's presser is posted yet. I'm sure they asked him about the late Mr. Wilson. R.I.P.

@Maja:so it was standard Fed wreck game?Leading 5-1, everything is in your hands, you have all the shots, you're Fed for god sakes, and then SNAP! he's gone mental.Oh well.Sadly but this is what I expect now from Federer, to go mental without valid reason.To be a better player, and to constantly give away matches is crazy.I so wonder how it's gonna develope in the future, he now has serious problem, that just keeps repeating.Will he wake up?Will be interesting to see.I'm sad to see such a brilliant player doing this to himself.I want normal Federer, we already have Safin, two of them are just too much.

Oh, I though you were talking about Nole for a moment johanne. my bad!

I check the SEO site and ASAP sports and couldn't find the transcript from his presser. Feel free to leave the link here - inquiring minds are DYING to know.

What's the big deal? When he was younger, Roger smashed his rackets all the time.

True enough JadeFoxxy (I always want to type 3 X's - tennisperv). But because of that reason it shows Fed's actually regressing which is a pretty bad sign for his game right now and with Baby Mango on the way. He's going to have less mental bandwith than he has now to work on his game once Mango's born. He may deny it but I think he'll see it's not so easy.

He needs to start AHORA and get his shite in gear. It's just going to get worse - as evidenced today.

I don't know if he's regressing really. I think he basically learned how to suppress it and was successful in doing so for a long time. But it probably takes a lot of work to suppress what seems to be his true nature so it's coming out, little by little.

I do think the fact that he served and volleyed for a lot of the third set means he isn't THAT stubborn and he's willing to change it up.

And seeing how his problems began before he got Mirka pregnant I don't think it's about impending fatherhood at this point. That can be used as a too easy excuse if one isn't careful.

"I've had like 5 coaches in the last few years."Ammmm, OK, is that an answer?!?He is out of reality.Yeah Fed, but two years ago you were destroying others, now you're destroying yourself, any clues to catch?And they do ask him, what does it take for him to get it...he lives in the last 5 years, but it's this year now, and he's reluctant to face it.

ITA TEssa about the coach comment - ummm, what??? There were other weird things in there as well - what was with that hard court over, on to the clay courts bit???

And, while impending fatherhood might not be the only reason things are going South, I firmly believe it's part of the reason.

ITA with Rich that things are only going to get harder/probably worse after Mango arrives. Somewhere I read this article about chances of winning majors after fatherhood. The gist was not good, to say the very least, with lots of stats backing up the article. They had some comments of current tour and former tour fathers, and they all said it was going to be a lot more difficult than Federer realizes.

So, no matter what Federer says about it, I just really think it's playing on his mind and feeding into the "I might never win another major" mindset he seems to be carrying.

Obviously "a whole lot" (sorry Tessa I couldn't resist ;) is going wrong, but trapper Mirka and baby Mango are at least part of it.

Wait...wait...wait......WITHIGOW? AHORA?(Who, me?;) )ITA, I can figure out. wtf do the other two mean?

Rog saying it DIDN'T feel good makes me hate him now. Keep on thinkin' that way, loser. You'll be out of the top 50 in no time.Alright...constant racquet smashing bad. When-it's-needed racquet smashing? Verrrrrrrrrry good.

Interesting, or not really, not surprising I should say, that he spends a good part of that presser bashing his opponent (and the weather) - and that he just played a bit worse? Me thinks he needs to cancel a few lunch dates with Anna Wintour and start watching some Rafa pressers and see how good sportsmanship is actually shown.

Good point Foxxy - I don't want the poor kid getting blamed either. His/her mother on the hand... No, but seriously, it's not poor innocent baby's fault, it's Fed's and his mentality about it.

Plus, his refusal to acknowledge what a change this is infuriates me. Not so much, say, as his refusal to acknowledge anything is wrong with his game, or his refusal to acknowledge that he'll never beat Father Time, but it infuriates me nonetheless.

You are a GOAT candidate for heaven's sake Fed, act like it!!! This infuriation even after all the slack I'm cutting him for the wonderful class-act years he has given us. Come on Fed, don't ruin the legacy!

-Tin

PS - I will shut up now, why am I even letting Fed make me crazy, I love Rafa for heaven's sake. ;) If Fed wants to fall, let him fall I guess, or keep up the "great effort" or whatever:

"So, you know, I finished worse than him. He played so bad in the first set, I had a great effort by finishing even worse than him. It was good."

Yeah he was SO sarcastic in that presser and like Maja said the part about looking forward to the clay??? WTF!!! That was so telling. Does he really think his prospects will be better on the clay than hard courts? He can't get himself to admit, at least publicly, that his game is slipping fast.

I only saw the last three games of the match so, sadly, I missed the smash. Someone back up in the comments said this was his worst match of the year. Really? Worse than how Andy beat him a couple weeks back? Cuz that was some shi**y play from Roger in the third set vs. Murray. And, bless you Nole! You dull the pain of Rafa's loss!

The recipient of the Edberg Sportsmanship Award for 2008 (5 years in a row) does the following when losing: smashes racquet, throws bottles and refuses to shake umpire's hand (for the second time recently).

Narik, it was worse. It was way, way, way worse! Fed totally self-destructed after he won the first set! If Djoker had played at 60% of what he's capable of (yes, the quality of the match was THAT low), he would have double-bageled Fed!!

No..he is not living in denial as he said that in his presser that nobody expected him to win anyway..so that should shut you all up right?gloat AWAY.....As all of you have been saying...he is done so be happy now ok?Now move on and forget about him.

That was AWESOME! Finally Fed gets real with his emotions. First the crying and now this? Anyone who's played knows your real personality comes out on court. Haven't seen this in the last few years because of all the winning. And you can be measured in a press conference so I could care less about that. That poor racquet fell victim to all those losses to Rafa and Murray. Losing to Djokobitch just put him over the edge. Good times!

I LOOOVVVEE it when they smash their rackets! I wish the women did it more. I don't know why people boo or whistle when they do that, you are allowed to get frustrated. Nothing's more boring than showing no emotion.